As we watched the recordings, we quickly understood what was troubling Joy. When we weren’t there, the nanny seemed to neglect our daughter. Every time the baby cried, instead of picking her up or trying to calm her, she sat calmly in front of the TV, completely indifferent to the cries.
Joy, on the other hand, reacted immediately.
She would bark with increasing intensity, as if trying to signal that something was wrong. Her reaction was much more than simple protective instinct; it was a response to the injustice she perceived.
She was deeply disturbed by the nanny’s lack of responsiveness to our daughter’s needs. This behavior, which we had initially taken for possessiveness or jealousy, was actually a form of defense, a reaction from our dog to a situation that, in her view, was unacceptable.
